18 Feb 08

Voltaire (1694-1778) was among the first to write a complete history of the world

The Voltaire Foundation at Oxford University has been awarded a substantial grant to produce the first scholarly edition of one of the first complete histories of the world.

Essai sur les moeurs was written by Voltaire (1694-1778), one of the leading thinkers of the Enlightenment, in the mid-eighteenth century. It is one of the very first attempts to write the history of the world covering all ages, all continents and all religions.

The £603,528 grant, made over five years by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), will help Oxford researchers to produce a scholarly edition of this seminal work in seven volumes. 

The grant will allow for the employment of a dedicated editor, and enable better collaboration with a team of scholars in France. It will also help to finance an international conference devoted to this work.

Professor Nicholas Cronk, General Editor of the Complete Works of Voltaire, who will lead the project, said: ‘Our ambitious target is to complete the edition of the Complete Works of Voltaire, which was begun in 1968, in ten years’ time. By then it will constitute about 200 volumes in all.

‘The Essai sur les moeurs is an important milestone in this endeavour and the AHRC grant is vital in helping us to achieve our goal.’